Hanka Robertson’s Drawstring Purse from Piecework magazine.

I wanted to stitch this as soon as I saw it in the Autumn 2025 Piecework magazine. Hanka Robertson has adapted old costumes and Slavic pattern magazines to come up with this drawstring purse.  I loved the shape, the primary colours and the association with folk embroidery. I didn’t want to interrupt my run of embroidered craft bags, but I did want embroidered this.

I’m not a huge fan of Aida, but could see immediately that this one would look good stitched on it, although the instructions specified 28 count linen. I thought I had a supply of Aida. I was wrong. I needed more DMC stranded thread for the Kasia Jacquot bags, so visited Create in Stitch for the thread and also bought two packs of Aida - one cream, one black - all they had. 

As a break from the Jacquot embroidery, I marked up the cream Aida for the Robertson design.

It sat for a bit before I took a break from the Jacquot bags, mounted the Aida in a hoop and got to work. I began with the red and worked mostly half-cross stitches, enough outlines to keep me correctly oriented and able to repeat motifs.

It was surprisingly slow work. There are a lot of stitches in a relatively small space. Our recent heatwave gave me the indoor hours needed to finish the colourwork.

However, the pattern demanded every segment be outlined in black perle 12,  and that took considerable time.

Another 47C day provided the opportunity. I spent the best part of the day outlining the centre pattern. The following day, a mere 40C, I spent reading and only completed the inner border outline in the evening while listening to the television.

That was probably a mistake. It is surprisingly difficult to accurately stitch an outline on Aida, harder, I suspect, than on linen. The structure of Aida makes it easy to miss the hole and split the fabric. There is a section of the border where I’ve missed the hole several times over a couple of inches - no doubt checking the screen rather than the embroidery. I’m not planning on correcting it. 

So here’s the complete block finished . The outlining was worth the effort, pushing the pattern forward.

That left two rows of cross stitch for the ribbon casing and one for the top edge - all requiring an outline below and above.  Very little of this was achievable in the hoop, so hand- holding required. 

I found a suitable lining fabric and cut it to size before washing and blocking the embroidery. I was hoping the process would soften the Aida, but I was disappointed. 

 Since the ribbon casing needed to be stitched to the backing in order to form the casing, it seemed more sensible to stitch the black outline on the machine. That required a slow and steady pace. The result was not as neat as hand-stitching as can be seen here, but was, I  think, the right decision. 

The casing also required two insertion points for the ribbon, one on either side.

I machined the lining into  a bag, inserted it and stitched the 

top edge to the Aida on the inside.

I used the whole piece of Aida, making the bag more rectangular rather the one in Piecework. I think that's OK. I do want the bag to be useful, Perhaps I should bave centred it vertically, but it's not critical.

While the pattern used red ribbon for the cord,  I thought it called for a twisted cord. I made two, with a strand of each of the colours. 

Some red tassels from a workshop came in handy.  The cords could be a heavier, but I am not replacing them.

The stiffness of the Aida does not really suit a drawstring. It won't tighten more than in the photo. It is a good, strong bag, and will, I'm sure, find it's purpose in life and spread cheer. I'm happy to have created it.

Knitted Impressionist bag

Piecework Magazine for Fall 2025 had a knitting project that appealed to me. Called Water Lilies Tote, by Sarah Kelly, it is a knitted bag inspired by Monet’s Wattler Lilies series. I liked the look of it and thought it would be an interesting knitting challenge. I also happened to have some wool in similar colours, some of which was even in the recommended wool, Rowan Felted Tweed though not enough dark pink for the whole, and none in the dark blue background colour. I did, however, have a whole 200gm ball of Bendigo Woollen Mill’s  10 ply Rustic Tweed in a very close colour, and three pinks to mix.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I gathered resources and set off stitching. 

I found the instructions a little confusing.  I didn't want this to be my debut in double-layer knitting. I didn't have enough of the pink and green wool to work two sides and I had no intention of working it using the intarsia method. I therefore adapted, working the floral front back and forth, using mainly Fair Isle, then a plain back, sides and base. I added a few stitches to the front, to allow for joining. Unfortunately I miscalculated, and ended up needing to adjust the chart. 

It took a while. There are a few places where I used Intasia (the yellow, for example) and but I enjoyed the challenge. There are errors, but I figured felting would cover them.

When I began the plain back, it occurred to me if I created a steek I could knit it in the round, without purling, I seem to have come a long way since my nervous first steek in 2022! It worked a treat. It used the same number of stitches as the front but because the tension was much looser without the multiple colours, it was wide enough to cover the sides as well. The 200gm ball of dark blue ran out a few rows short, so I added a green edge.

I stitched between two stitch lines on the machine and cut the steek. I also used the machine to join the front to the back and form sides.

For the base, I picked up stitches along the lower front and worked across, binding each row into the sides of the base at either end as I went. I found a very close match  to the dark blue left over from  Alice Starmore's St Brigid Aran. It served for the handles as well.

I closed the last seam with knitting, after pinning it to make sure I got it even. 

The result pleased me. It was a decent size but a bit loose and floppy. Since it was meant to be felted, I wasn't concerned.

It's a while since I felted an item in a washing machine. I'd forgotten that when I last did it, I had a top-loading machine. I prepared the bag, but couldn't raise the temperature of the machine on anything but a 140 minute cycle, longer than recommended in felting instructions. I took a punt and tried the  shortest cycle which only heated to 30C. It didn't work, so I tried hand-felting. That barely worked.

I then took a risk, and added it to my washing machine along with my sheets, and washed it on the bed linen cycle, with temperature raised to 60C. Two and a half hours later, it emerged - felted. There are places where you can make out the lines of stitches, but it is well felted.

 It was also damp, but not saturated, after  the spin. I placed a cotton cushion inside it to give shape as it dries.

This, I think, will be a useful and sturdy bag. It looks quite good and has used up about 300 gms of stashed wool.

That's a win on several fronts (and backs)!